Summary: <p>We dive into the dynamics of one of the nation’s most competitive races during a pivotal midterm election cycle: Pennsylvania's Senate race.</p> <p>Democratic candidate John Fetterman long <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/fetterman-oz-polls-cbs-monmouth-image-20220914.html">held an edge in the race</a>, as a candidate who <a href="https://newsinteractive.post-gazette.com/john-fetterman-braddock-pa-lt-gov/">flouted right-wing caricatures</a> of the contemporary left as elite and out of touch — but a stroke he suffered in May left him with lingering side effects. His Republican opponent, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/dr-oz-false-misleading-baseless-medical-claims-coronavirus-2020-4#oz-pushed-hydroxychloroquine-to-fight-the-coronavirus-even-though-its-effects-were-still-unproven-1">celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz</a>, and his team, have seized onto Fetterman's recovery,<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/31/us/politics/fetterman-health-oz-pennsylvania.html"> launching attacks</a> to paint Fetterman as 'feeble' and 'lazy.'</p> <p><a href="https://nymag.com/">New York Magazine</a> writer-at-large Rebecca Traister <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/john-fetterman-dr-oz-pennsylvania-senate-race.html">writes</a>, "But while the image of Fetterman as fighter is what his campaign is going for, it’s possible that it is benefiting from a more complicated dynamic: that over the course of the race, Fetterman has become even more familiar to voters, not because of his Everyman toughness but because of his struggles." </p> <p>We speak with Traister whose recent piece <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/john-fetterman-dr-oz-pennsylvania-senate-race.html">chronicles Fetterman's trajectory</a> and examines how tropes of masculinity are being deployed in this race.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p>
